It's a Small World After All
by be-nice-to-nerds
Summary: A conversation on a rainy day leads to some interesting discoveries. It really is a very small world. Implied Hex/Amber, Alex/OC


**Here another oneshot that came up out of the blue to me. ****Well not really. The fact that I had 'It's a small world after all' stuck in my head at the time helped. This is what being bored in the summer holidays does to me. Oh no, heaven forbid I work on my ongoing fics, instead I write oneshots. Well, that's enough of my rambling. Enjoy.**

**Oh yeah – its set in the same holidays as Breaking The Fourth Wall, but you don't have to read it for this to make sense. Ok. Shutting up now.**

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It was yet another rainy day in Boston, Massachusetts. Inside Middleton mansion, on the outskirts of the aforementioned city, five teenagers' plans had been put on hold yet again. Alpha Force had been staying at Amber's place for over a week now and they'd only had one day of sunshine the entire time.

"We could have been going rock-climbing" groaned Li, a short and very hyperactive Anglo-Chinese girl. "But no. It had to rain. Amber, control that city of yours, please."

"I'm a millionaire, not a weather witch" snapped Amber, not meaning it entirely. "What, you think that if I pay enough money the weather will do what I tell it to?"

"Yes" quipped Hex, and received a pillow in the face for his trouble. "Hey!"

He picked up the pillow and proceeded to pummel the dark skinned American with it. Amber grabbed another one, and before long a full blown pillow fight was taking place between the two of them.

Paulo smirked as he eyed the scene in front of him. "Hey you two!" Both Hex and Amber ignored him and continued their pillow fight. "Go get a room, why don't you."

Yet again, this failed to get a reaction. The two teenagers continued trying to beat the stuffing out of each other – and their pillows, one of which had already started to leak feathers. The fact that they ignored him was one that most people would have taken as a blessing. The same people would then have gotten out of there ASAP before one of them realized what had just been said to them.

Then again, most people weren't as brave – or, as many would call it, as stupid as Paulo. Seeing that his earlier comment had failed to get a response, Paulo fell back onto the classic primary school taunt.

"Hex and Amber, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Amber with a baby in a carriage."

This did get a reaction. Hex and Amber immediately stopped their pillow fight. They both responded in the way countless others had responded before them – they sat up straight opened their mouths and yelled, without looking at the others, something along the lines of "He/She is not my boyfriend/Girlfriend."

For a second, there was silence. Then Hex and Amber rose back out of the deja vu and regained the maturity level of teenagers – not that it was a very big improvement, but it was something.

Amber looked at Hex. Hex looked at Amber. They both smiled, a grin that looked anything but friendly.

Alex and Li exchanged glances and started backing away slowly. There are times when you have to help your friends. This was not one of them.

Hex and Amber each picked up several pillows. Then they charged at Paulo. He didn't even see it coming. Well, he did, but Alex and Li had had the presence of mind to pick up two pillows each, for self defence. This had left Paulo unarmed.

Within seconds, the pillow fight had expanded from two people to three and Li and Alex were several metres away from the closest door.

All it takes is one pillow to change the world. In this case, a badly aimed pillow thrown by Amber missed Paulo, its target, and hit Alex in the shoulder. He threw one of his pillows randomly into the fray and grabbed one of Li's pillows to keep himself fully loaded. Li looked down, saw one of her pillows missing and proceeded to whack Alex over the head with her remaining pillow.

Thus, the pillow fight involved all of the five teenagers in the room at the time.

Twenty minutes later the pillow fight drew to a close. Perched on various pieces of furniture, Alpha Force surveyed the room. It was a mess. Pillows lay discarded on the floor and feathers were everywhere. The room they were in was a far cry from the one they had been in just half an hour ago – despite the fact that it was the same one.

"I'm bored" announced Li.

Everyone else exchanged glances. Whenever Li said that phrase, it heralded the start of a Very Bad Idea. In capitals, of course. In other words- trouble. Big Trouble. That might as well be in capitals too. With full stops between the words.

"What can we do?" she asked Amber, who, as host, knew Middleton mansion better than anybody.

"I don't care, as long as we don't play Risk again." Paulo, obviously. No one else had a deep-set dislike of Risk. "You guys _always_ gang up on me."

"You know" Amber grinned, "suddenly I have this huge urge to play Risk. What do you think, Hex?"

"I think that sounds like an excellent idea." Hex gave Paulo a venomous glance.

"Oh, leave poor Paulo alone." said Alex, temporarily taking leave of his senses. "You're just sore 'cause he's right."

Hex moved at the speed of light. In a few seconds he was on top of Alex with a hand like a knife at his throat. He wasn't going to kill Alex – but he wasn't going to let him get off scot-free either.

"You will not mention that again" he hissed. Suddenly Hex grinned – and it wasn't a particularly nice one either. "Or else I'm telling Maddy that you've got a crush on her."

For a second Alex froze. Then he smirked. "Oh no, you can't do that. 'Cause you don't know where she lives. You don't even know her."

Alex resisted the urge to say "So there!" and stick his tongue out. Though immensely satisfying, it was rather juvenile – and Alex was supposed to be the mature one, after all.

Hex smirked, a look that mirrored the one Alex was wearing at the moment. "Oh yes I do know her. I live with her."

Alex stared.

Hex continued. "Madeline. Blond haired, blue eyed. An only child. Her parents are divorced. She was a Londoner until they split. Now, during weekdays, she lives in Northumberland with her Dad. In the weekends she lives with her Mum, her stepfather and her two stepbrothers in London. Me and Ben. My parents are divorced too. During the weekends I live with my father in his apartment along with my stepmother and my stepsister – who happens to be called Madeline Mills."

Alex groaned. "Did you know her from when I told you about her?"

"Nope" Hex replied, off Alex and much more cheerful now that he had blackmail. "She moved in with us a few weeks after we got back from that mission."

"How did you get Alex to tell you, anyway?" asked Amber.

Hex answered her. "It all started when Paulo came to Alex for advice about-"

Paulo clamped a hand over Hex's mouth and smiled in relief. "Just for advice"

He removed his hand from Hex's mouth. Hex, seeing a spot for revenge, acted fast. "About a girl."

Alex continued before either of the other boys could make each other too mad. "Hex made some insulting comment which implied that I was gay – you seem to be rubbing off on him, Amber. So in revenge I turned Paulo to Hex."

Amber snorted. "You got him to ask _gadget boy_ for girl advice? Wow, you three must really suck at picking up girls."

"Hey!" protested Hex "I've had a girlfriend. Once. In year eight. For a week."

"See" said Amber, "My point entirely. But why did Paulo have to ask, anyway? He's probably the one with the most skills out of all of you."

Alex flicked his eyes briefly to Li, who was sitting deep in concentration muttering "I know I've heard that name somewhere…"

"Oh."

"Well Hex proved to be about as helpful as Alex was." Paulo had taken over the telling of the story. "He was too busy getting Alex to prove he wasn't gay. And then he managed to get Alex to launch into daydreams about Maddy for the whole night. I didn't get a wink of sleep!"

"All I did was ask one question!" protested Hex. "How was I supposed to know it would get him started?"

"Well you're supposed to be the smart one" retorted Paulo.

Luckily, before they could start another fight, Li interrupted them.

"Eureka!" she cried. "I've got it! I know where I heard that name before."

"Well, where?" Alex was getting slightly upset that everyone seemed to know the girl of his dreams.

"My parents were working in London a few years back – maybe six months before the _Phoenix_? She was in my class. Maddy's a sweet girl Alex, she'll like you. She goes for blond haired, blue eyed boys anyway. And you're nice."

"Umm… thanks, I guess." Alex never responded well to compliments.

"Yeah, you're right about the going for blonds." Hex remarked.

"How do you know?" Li turned to him. "You're not a girl. Girls don't tell guys who they like."

Hex grinned. "It's pretty simple. I live with her, remember. She has a huge poster of Alex Pettyfeather on her wall." **(1)**

"Oh."

Amber turned to Paulo. "How come we never know what they're talking about?"

"It's 'cause your American." Alex shot over to them.

"Racism!" yelled amber, but she had a smile on her face. "Let's get 'em, Paulo." All bad feelings disappeared in the face of an insult to the Americas.

Another pillow fight ensued, and the rest of the feathers made their way out of the pillow and onto the floor.

When they stopped the fight for lack of full pillows, Li looked outside.

"Hey guys, it's stopped raining…"

**

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This is my longest oneshot ever**** – a full MS word page longer than Breaking the Fourth Wall. I'm rather proud of myself – even if it has absolutely no plot.**

**(1) For those of you who don't know, he's the guy who played Alex Rider in Stormbreaker.** **Its ironic 'cause on the forums we were (well, I wasn't part of the conversation because of time zones but it ended up in my inbox) talking about who would play Alex if there was an AF film and they came up with Alex Pettyfeather.**

**In other news – I've ****finally figured out how to make MS word write in New-Zealand spelling. You have no idea how good it feels to spell colour with a u, realise with an s, grey with an e and so forth. Seriously. It's awesome. (No offence to any of you Americans out there).**

**I hope you enjoyed, and please review.**


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